Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Judge tells 'insensitive' father in custody dispute not to type emails to his children in capital letters

An "insensitive" father banned by the courts from seeing his children has been warned by a judge not to type his emails to them in capital letters - because it looks like he is shouting. The Israeli father was fighting in the High Court in London for direct contact with the boy and girl, aged 13 and nine, after a collapse in their family relationship.

His marriage to their mother had broken down and a protracted legal battle has seen them moved back and forth between England and Israel. Mrs Justice Pauffley said attempts at contact in the UK had proved "nothing short of disastrous", with the girl distraught throughout one session.

And the police had become involved when the father tried to take the children outside during a supervised meet-up at a rabbi's home. The children also felt that their father's emails to them - written sometimes exclusively in capitals and others in large fonts - were "equivalent to him shouting".

The judge said the emails were an example of the father's "insensitivity" and that a family assistance officer should help him write more "suitable" communications. "He needs help to make his messages appropriate and child friendly," said the judge. "There's nothing worse than an email suggestive that the sender is shouting at you." She said the family now needed to try to restore a relationship between the children and their father "at a distance".